Executive Chairman – Mutle Mogase

Mutle is currently the Executive Chairman of Vantage Capital. Mutle oversees all aspects of the Group’s business with a particular focus on Group’s proprietary investments with directorships at Incwala and Kwikspace. Mutle also represents Vantage Mezzanine as an observer on the board of the Tsebo Outsourcing Group.

Outside of Vantage, Mutle is the Chairman of African Bank, a listed South African bank focused on the low-income market.

Mutle commenced his working career as a financial accountant at LTA Construction Ltd. Thereafter, he moved to Nedbank where he was a relationship manager in the corporate banking division and was responsible for a portfolio of R1,5 billion. While at Nedbank he was appointed to the leadership team and was seconded to Chase Manhattan for a period, where he gained experience in corporate finance, broking, dealing and middle market operations.

At his next position with ABSA Bank, Mutle was responsible for the implementation of ABSA’s micro lending strategy with the creation of Nubank. He started Nubank from scratch and was CEO for 3 years. In addition, he was appointed to the group strategy and operational risk committees at ABSA. During this time, Mutle was also involved as one of the five founding members, in the establishment of Real Africa Investments Limited (RAIL), one of the pre-eminent listed black empowerment companies in South Africa. RAIL is an investment holding company with significant interests in listed companies in the life insurance, investment banking, food and medical sectors.

In 1999, Mutle sold his interest in RAIL and started MMR Equity Capital together with Colin Rezek which after a merger in 2001 was the genesis of the Vantage Capital Group.

As a pioneer of black-owned private equity fund management, Mutle Mogase was closely involved in 2002-03 in the formulation of the Financial Sector Charter (“FSC”) on Black Economic Empowerment. Mutle Mogase was also chairman of the Micro Finance Regulatory Council (MFRC) and it was during his tenure that the new credit act was developed.

Mutle holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Cape Town, has completed an Executive Development Programme at the City University of New York and a Graduate Diploma in Corporate Governance at the Graduate Institute of Management Technology in Johannesburg.

Chairman - Vantage Risk Capital Investment Committee – Ian Heron

Ian Heron is the Chairman of Vantage Mezzanine’s Investment Committee which approves all investments by the Fund. In addition to chairing the Investment Committee, Ian plays a day-to-day oversight role monitoring the existing portfolio and reviewing new investment opportunities. Ian is the Fund’s observer on the board of Safripol Holdings.

Ian has an extensive track record of managing large South African and international businesses which have included Joy Manufacturing, a manufacturer and distributor of mining equipment in South Africa and the subsidiary of a large US group, Kersaf Investments, a publicly listed casino and leisure group, Sappi Southern Africa, a leading forest products company, and the Premier Group which included SA’s largest cotton, medicine distribution, photographic and book & stationery retailing businesses, as well as SA’s second largest food company.

More recently, Ian was a partner in a private equity company that managed Standard Bank’s private equity business for five years. Ian’s most recent position, prior to joining Vantage, was as a senior banker in the Corporate and Investment Banking division of Standard Bank.

Ian is a Chartered Accountant by training.

Divisional Director – Private Equity & Risk Capital – Colin Rezek

Colin is a Director of Vantage Capital and a founder of the business. He has day-to-day responsibilities for the origination and assessment of mezzanine fund and balance-sheet investments. He is a member of the Vantage Mezzanine Fund’s investment committee.

Colin has had a wide range of entrepreneurial experience over the years. The main focus was building and running the Rezek Motor Group with his two brothers over a 13 year period. The group grew from one dealership to the largest privately-owned motor group in South Africa at the time, before being merged with a listed group, Venture Motor Holdings, in 1994. At this time, the turnover of the Rezek Motor Group was R450 million and it employed 440 people. Over the period various complimentary businesses were started, such as short term insurance, import/export and panel-beating.

He then spent 3 years at Venture Motor Holdings, where he played a significant role in various aspects of operations, marketing and new business development. During this period he also established the largest Ultra City in South Africa which employed 230 people. This business has since been sold. In 1998 and 1999, Colin assisted in the establishment and management of the Equity Africa Fund. The Equity Africa Fund is a R100 million fund sponsored by ABSA aimed at developing previously disadvantaged individuals.

Subsequently, Colin partnered with Mutle to establish MMR Equity Capital, a private equity management company which after a merger in 2001 was the genesis of the Vantage Capital Group.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Witwatersrand and an MBA from the Witwatersrand Business school.

Divisional Director – Private Equity – Chris Lister James

Chris is a founder of the business with Mutle and Colin. His primary responsibility is the management of the Vantage Technology Fund and he is also involved in proprietary investments such as ComCorp.

Chris brings a wealth of experience in financial management and in investment banking, particularly in structured finance and private equity fund management. His most recent prior experience was at Real Africa Durolink Investment Bank Limited (RAD) where he established and managed a technology venture capital fund. Prior to his career at RAD, Chris was Financial Director of McCarthy Motor Holdings which was the largest motor retailer in Africa.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, a Diploma in Accountancy and Higher Diploma in Taxation from the University of Natal. He passed his Chartered Accountant Board Exam in 1983 and completed a Management Advancement programme at the Wits Business School in 1992. Chris played first class cricket for Natal for 4 years and represented the South African President’s XI versus Australia in 1986.

Divisional Director – Risk Capital – Luc Albinski

Luc Albinski is a director of Vantage Mezzanine and a member of the Fund’s Investment Committee. His primary responsibility is the assessment, structuring, execution and post-transaction monitoring of mezzanine fund investments. Luc has played a key role in all five investments executed by the Fund to date for a total of almost R1 billion.

Luc has strategy consulting (Bain & Co., Accenture), business development (employee benefits) and private equity investing (International Finance Corporation, Brait) experience.

More recently, Luc established Standard Bank’s Mid-Size Private Equity department which focussed on executing mezzanine transactions in the mid-market as an alternative to traditional private equity solutions. Luc headed up Standard Bank’s Mezzanine Finance department where he co-led several noteworthy transactions. These included providing R800 million in funding for the buy-out of the South Africa subsidiary of Waco International and providing R1 billion in mezzanine funding for the De Beers empowerment transaction.

Luc has a Masters of Business Administration from the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France.

Chief Financial Officer – Vantage Capital Group – Warren van der Merwe

Warren is Chief Financial Officer of the Group as well as of Vantage Mezzanine. As such, he is responsible for the financial management of the Group’s proprietary investment activities. He is also responsible for risk management, portfolio monitoring and reporting with regard to the mezzanine fund.

Warren plays a significant role in the assessment of all new investments being considered by the Fund.

Warren served a year of academic articles at the University of Witwatersrand and the remainder of his articles at Arthur Andersen before starting his banking career with Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

His first position was Account Executive in the Corporate Banking division, managing the bank’s relationships with certain of its mining clients. He then assumed a new business development role and later led a team of transactors in this new business team.

During this time he concluded numerous bank funding deals including several leveraged finance transactions. His last position was in the Bank’s acquisition finance team where he successfully concluded a number of leveraged finance transactions, before joining Vantage Capital.

Senior Advisor – Mansour Kelada-Antoun

Mansour Kelada-Antoun plays a key role in advising Vantage on its expansion plans in North Africa. His involvement includes assisting Vantage in establishing relationships with private equity firms and banks in the region as well as in originating and assessing mezzanine investment opportunities.

Mansour was with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where he gained extensive development finance and investment banking experience that includes the promotion, identification and structuring of investments in emerging markets. He held the position of Regional Representative for North Africa where he built and managed IFC’s investment portfolio in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and successfully originated and completed several financing deals in Egypt and Jordan.

Mansour established and managed Quality Finance International, a firm based in Cairo which consults to the microfinance industry in the Middle East and Africa, and he founded his own investment and advisory services company in Canada. He advised the government of Saudi Arabia on establishing the first SME guarantee facility, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities on financing green power projects, and the IFC on developing its global decentralization strategy.

Mansour holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSc in Telecommunication from Cairo University.

Senior Advisor – Peter Baird

Peter Baird serves as a senior advisor to Vantage Capital on operating and strategic issues, including pre-transaction commercial diligence, and performance-improvement work with the portfolio companies.

Peter was formerly a partner at McKinsey & Company, serving a wide range of private equity and healthcare clients. In his ten years at McKinsey, the focus of his practise was transactional support (M&A, leveraged buyouts, in-licensing, joint ventures, and alliances) and corporate and business-unit strategy. In 2006, Peter was recruited by Blackstone to lead the $1.2 billion leveraged buyout of a medical-device manufacturer called ReAble Therapeutics. In 2007, in a second leveraged buyout, worth nearly $3 billion, Peter led the successful merger of ReAble with one of its major competitors, DJO, Incorporated.

Earlier in his career, Peter was a principal at Brait Capital Partners in Johannesburg, and an investment banker at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Peter currently sits on the boards of two listed companies (EastPharma and Buildworks Group) and one privately held Blackstone portfolio company (Catalent Pharma Solutions).

Peter holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also holds an MA (Economics) from the University of Cape Town, and a BA (Honours) in Economics and Political Theory from Bates College. Peter is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Chief Risk Advisor – Risk Capital – Daisy Naidoo

Daisy serves as Chief Risk Advisor to Vantage Risk Capital and her work entails reviewing deal profiles and financial models and providing input into term sheets; and offering guidance on Investment Committee applications.

Daisy served her articles from 1994 to 1996 at Ernst and Young and was seconded to their Seattle office in 1997. In Sept 1997, she joined South African Breweries as a financial planner. In 1999, she began studying part-time for her Masters of Accounting degree and joined Deloittes in May 1999 as a corporate tax consultant. During this time, Daisy consulted to mostly listed corporates and was seconded to BoE Bank Limited (now part of Nedcor) to perform the bank’s tax function. She left Deloittes in April 2001 where her last position was assistant tax manager.

Daisy joined Gensec Bank (now Sanlam Capital Markets) as a dealmaker and worked there until the end of May 2010, where her last role was that of Head: Debt Structuring Unit. During this time she concluded numerous funding deals including several leveraged finance transactions. Daisy has concluded approximately R1.5bn mezzanine transactions, mostly to facilitate and fund BEE transactions. She was appointed to the sub-credit committee of the Sanlam Investment Cluster - the operational committee to consider investment into credit/fixed income assets (the Sanlam Group has in excess of R120bn in fixed income assets). She also represented Sanlam as its nominee on the audit and credit committee of Fintech, she was a director of Safair Lease Finance (a joint venture with Imperial Holdings with assets in excess of R4bn), she was Sanlam’s shareholder representative on the board of Life Healthcare and she represented Sanlam as its advisory board member on the Vantage Mezzanine Fund I (a R1bn fund set up in 2007).

Daisy completed the Sanlam Management Development Program from the University of Stellenbosch in 2005 and in 2007 was seconded to Citi London as part of the ABSIP/Eskom programme to enhance financial skills in South Africa.

Daisy is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters of Accounting degree (specialisation in Taxation) from the University of Natal Durban.

Currently, Daisy is a member of SAICA, ABSIP, AWCA, BMF, BWA and the Institute of Directors Southern Africa.

Investment Associate – Private Equity – Lindiwe Buthelezi

Lindi is involved in all aspects of the Group’s activities including on-balance sheet transactions (Lindi is a director of Kwikspace), the mezzanine fund (with a particular focus on the Primedia and Reclam transactions) and the technology fund (where Lindi is a member of the board of several portfolio companies).

Lindi commenced her working career as a graduate trainee in the finance department at Eskom Holdings Limited in January 1997 where she stayed until the middle of 1999. In the same year she moved to Real Africa Durolink Investment Bank Limited as a trainee money market dealer. In 2000 she joined the treasury unit of Citibank N.A where she worked for 3 years as a corporate dealer focussing primarily on foreign exchange and money market dealing.

In 2003, Lindi joined Enterprise Equity Partners Proprietary Limited as an investment associate in private equity responsible for reviewing, evaluating and negotiating potential debt and equity investments. She also worked for Decorum Capital Partners, the fund managers for the New Africa Mining Fund.

Lindi completed her BComm. in Business Finance and Business Administration at the University of Natal and then completed her Diploma and B Comm. (Hons) in Investment Management (RAU). She is currently registered part time with the University of London for MSc in Financial Management.

Senior Associate – Risk Capital – Johnny F. Jones

CFA, CPA, Economics Degree (Duke University), MBA (Wharton)

Johnny is primarily focused on the mezzanine fund’s activities. Prior to joining Vantage, he worked in the leveraged finance group at UBS Investment Bank in the U.S. In this role he specialized in the basic materials sector assisting in underwriting transactions and providing relative value investment recommendations for listed debt securities.

Johnny began his career in 2000 working as an equity research investment analyst at Wachovia Securities in Atlanta, Georgia. His focus was on macroeconomic trends and investment strategy. Later he spent two years at KPMG in the Economic & Valuation Services division based in New York. In this role he worked as a generalist providing debt and equity value indications for companies in industries including Financial Services, Steel and Entertainment.

Johnny received his Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Duke University in North Carolina. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2007 and passed the Certified Public Accountant exam in 2003.

Investment Associate – Risk Capital – Altaf Rooknoodeen

Altaf is primarily focused on the mezzanine fund’s activities. Prior to joining Vantage, Altaf was employed by Absa Corporate Development and was responsible for the internal mergers and acquisitions activity of the Absa Group (a subsidiary of the Barclays Group).

Altaf began his career in 2002 working as a trainee accountant at the Johannesburg office of Ernst & Young. In 2004, Altaf was seconded to Ernst & Young’s London office. In 2005 he joined the management programme at Standard Bank’s Investment Banking Division. This provided Altaf with the unique opportunity of gaining experience in various areas of investment banking, including corporate finance, project finance, global markets, brokerage, property finance, credit and corporate banking. Altaf thereafter joined the global markets division of Standard Bank, responsible for new business development.

Altaf received his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Accounting degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and is a qualified Chartered Accountant as well as a CFA Charterholder.  


 

Investment Analyst – Nermeen Marzouk

Nermeen Marzouk joined Vantage Capital as an Investment Analyst in April 2010 and she is based at the Cairo office.

She came from Commercial International Bank (CIB) where she worked from 2005 to 2007 as a strategic planner and business analyst. Whilst at CIB, she analyzed and valuated a diversity of projects and assessed the bank's competitive positioning both domestically and regionally.

From 2007 to 2008 Nermeen worked at the IFC where she handled IFC’s MENA agribusiness portfolio.

Nermeen obtained her BA in business administration with a concentration in finance from the American University in Cairo and more recently she completed her MSc in finance from Cranfield University. 
 

Investment Committee Member - Thomas Schwartz

Thomas Schwartz reviews all the mezzanine investment proposals that the Vantage Mezzanine Fund II investment team originates and structures.

Thomas has more than 26 years of experience in the Venture Capital, Private Equity and Mezzanine. He is currently an advisor to Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners GmbH, the private equity division of the leading German private bank, Sal. Oppenheim that was recently bought by Deutsche Bank. Previously, he was a co-founder and partner of VCM Capital Management GmbH, which was sold to Sal. Oppenheim in 2007.

Thomas was instrumental in creating VCM’s first mezzanine fund of funds in 2003/2004. He was heavily involved in raising the money from both private and institutional clients and in selecting mezzanine funds. Thomas was also a member of various advisory boards of international mezzanine funds.

Until 1991, his responsibilities as partner and head of the venture capital department of the Matuschka Group covered numerous venture capital programs in the US and Asia. Prior to 1984, his career also included a position at the Bayerische Vereinsbank where he was head of the international credit department.

Thomas is a lawyer by training.

Chairman of VM Fund II Investment Committee – Arthur Arnold

Arthur has more than 40 years experience in Commercial, Investment and Development Banking. He started his career in 1968 at ABN AMRO and over the 24 year period he held several senior management positions in Africa, Iran, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In 1992 Arthur joined the Rabobank Group where he progressed from Director of Financial Markets to Chairman of the Management Board of Rabobank International, and Director of Strategic Alliances and Communications.

Following that, in 2000, Arthur was appointed President & CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU), working out of Washington/Madison, in the U.S.

In early 2005, Arthur was subsequently appointed as Chief Executive Officer of FMO. Under his stewardship, FMO’s overall investment portfolio and annual production of new investments increased significantly, and the Capital base of FMO grew from EU800m to EU1,2bn from retained earnings. In addition to this, under Arthur’s guidance, FMO obtained the Banking license from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB).

Arthur resigned as CEO of FMO at the end of 2008 and now serves as an Independent Director/Advisor for several financial institutions and investment funds in Africa.

Arthur studied at Erasmus University, INSEAD and the Harvard Business School.

Financial Manager – Lauren Handler

Lauren Handler recently joined Vantage Capital as Financial Manager. She commenced her career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she worked for 6 years gaining valuable auditing as well as accounting experience. She then moved into commerce where she was employed by various companies including Gray Security Services, Chubb Security, Lithotech, Virgin Mobile, Gearhouse and Finwood Papers.

Lauren is a qualified FCIS (Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators) and received her diploma in 1995.

Consultant – Deidre Gebhardt

Deidre joined Vantage Capital in September 2006. She started her career at what was then UAL Merchant Bank (now Nedcor Ltd), and thereafter spent four years as Company Secretary at Arcay Group Ltd. Her most recent position was in the FMCG industry as Financial Manager for the local subsidiary of a multinational. Deidre received her Chartered Institute of Secretaries Diploma in 1992.

Consultant – Ronel Cronje

Ronel started her career at Vaal Reefs Mining and later gained experience in the FMCG industry. She spent two years in London working for their Home Office. After some time off to start a family, Ronel joined Vantage in Aug 07. Ronel received her Higher national Diploma in Cost & Management Accounting in 1995.

Finance Clerk – Pumla Ngete

Pumla joined Vantage Capital in August 2004. Between 1995 and 1998, she did her Senior Education Diploma at Vista University (Port Elizabeth Campus). While at Vista she was appointed as a gender officer on the SRC. From 2000 she was employed at African Bank as a receptionist. Pumla holds a diploma in Office Administration and Bookkeeping.

Mezzenine Corporate Affairs Co-ordinator – Brenda Wild

Brenda joined Vantage Capital in October 2008 as Mezzanine Corporate Affairs Coordinator. She started her career in 1989 as a legal secretary in conveyancing and litigation and thereafter joined the financial sector. She worked at Kagiso Financial Services for close to 6 years from the beginning of 2002, assisting the Managing Director and Director, and attending to all their Events Co-ordination. Brenda joined Gem Diamonds in 2007 as Corporate Affairs Co-ordinator where she gained further valuable experience in establishing the company’s Corporate Identity and co-ordinating and implementing arrangements around road-shows, conferences, site visits and events, including the hosting thereof.

Brenda has a Certificate in Public Relations from Unisa’s Centre for Business Management and is currently studying towards a BA in Communication Science, also through UNISA.

PA to Executive Chairman – Maggie Morei

Maggie joined Vantage Capital in February 2004, as office manager and personal assistant to the Chairman of the group.

Maggie started her career as a legal secretary. In 1992, she joined the Southern Sun Hotels & Holiday Inn Group, where she gained experience in Guest Relations & Front Office Management.

In 1998 Maggie joined Capital Partners, a Private Equity Company, which later merged with Capital Alliance Group to become Brait SA Ltd. Maggie has a Secretarial Diploma, a Certificate in Frontline Public Relations, a Diploma in Business English from Damelin College and a Certificate in Customer Relations from Rosebank College. Maggie is currently studying for a Diploma in Sales & Marketing.

Office Assistant – Sophy Lekalakala

Sophy Lekalakala joined Vantage Capital in February 2007 as an Office Assistant. She was previously employed as a shop assistant at Gently Worn for a year between 2006 and 2007. In 2004 she did a Diploma in Accounting and Information Systems through PC Training and Business College. Sophy is currently registered part time for a diploma in Corporate Governance and Administration through Wits University.

Director – Fairbridge Capital (Pty) Ltd - Ethene Steenkamp

Ethene is a founding member of Fairbridge Capital (Pty) Ltd and has extensive experience in corporate finance and acquisition & leveraged finance. Ethene started his career at Arthur Andersen, where he completed his articles at the end of 1996. After that, Ethene spent 5 years in London with Andersen Corporate Finance where he focussed on M&A advisory work in the mid-market and private equity space gaining extensive experience in MBO’s; LBO’s, corporate divestitures and corporate acquisitions.

In 2002 he returned to South Africa, where he joined Ernst & Young Corporate Finance to help establish the M&A team and later became Director of M&A where he gained a lot of experience advising on BEE transactions. In 2004 he joined Investec’s Growth & Acquisition Finance Team where he concluded a number of transactions including the funding of the acquisition by Siyanda Resources, NEF and De Beers of DMS Powders from BHP Billiton for circa R300 million as well as the funding of the acquisition of Koornfontein Coal Mine by a BEE-led consortium from BHP Billiton for R400 million.

More recently, Ethene headed up ABSA Corporate & Business Bank’s Acquisition & Leveraged Finance Team, which funded mid-market transactions in excess of R2 billion in 2007.

Director – Fairbridge Capital (Pty) Ltd - Micky Wostenholm

Micky is a founding member of Fairbridge Capital (Pty) Ltd which was established in early 2008. Prior to this, Micky completed his articles at Ernst & Young, Johannesburg in 1998 before moving to London where he spent some time with Credit Suisse and Cavendish Corporate Finance. During his three years at Cavendish, a boutique mid-market sell side corporate finance house, Micky gained valuable experience in MBO’s and the private equity arena and was involved in advising a number of vendors on the sale of their businesses valued at between £10 million and £100 million.

On returning to South Africa in 2004, he joined Investec’s Growth & Acquisition Finance team where he was involved in the funding of a number of transactions in the mid-market space, including the early funding of the currently listed Afrimat Ltd.

Micky left Investec at the end of 2006 to join ABSA Acquisition & Leveraged Finance, a start up team focussed on the funding of mid-market transactions, where he was responsible for funding of the Kulingile Metals Group buyout by a consortium led by Blackstar, and its subsequent purchase of Global Roofing Solutions.